Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) has said the 2027 general election could be postponed if the Ebola outbreak in the country spreads widely enough to warrant such a measure.
The Director-General of the NCDC, Jide Idris, disclosed this while speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today, saying the government would prioritise public health if the outbreak became severe.
The 2027 general election is scheduled to begin in January, with political parties and aspirants already making preparations for the polls.
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However, the NCDC boss said there was currently no need to consider postponing the 2027 election, expressing hope that the outbreak would not disrupt the electoral timetable.
“We hope the election will not be postponed, but if the thing gets wide enough, that might be considered. As at now, there is no need for that,” he said.
The NCDC chief also dismissed suggestions that the government could use the outbreak as a political tool, insisting that public health concerns should not be politicised.
“We in the health sector did not use disease issues as a political weapon,” he said.
Idris explained that Nigeria had been monitoring developments in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where the outbreak originated, and had anticipated the possibility of the disease reaching the country because of population movements, international flights and activities at ports of entry.
“This Ebola thing started in DRC a couple of months ago and we were tracking. They said for you to track again there is a possibility that it may get here due to our population movement, flight into this country, and ports of entry, yet it came. No government will use Ebola as a political weapon,” he said.
He maintained that any consideration of postponing the election would depend on the extent of the outbreak and the public health situation, rather than political interests.
Cc Tribune